Ferndale ice festival this weekend

Working with a chainsaw, Ted Baker of Canton carves up an ice sculpture in front of the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in downtown Ferndale during last year’s Holiday Ice & Winterfest Market event. This year’s event begins Friday.

FERNDALE — The holidays in the city’s downtown are met each year with chainsaw rendered ice sculptures and the usual opportunities of quality time with St. Nick.

This year is no different as downtown organizers get ready for the Holiday Ice & Winterfest Market, which runs Friday through Saturday.

About 10,000 people are expected to turn out for the festivities this year, said Chris Hughes of the city’s Downtown Development Authority.

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“The difference this year is that we’ll have more entertainment and more ice sculptures,” she said.

Activities include photos with Santa, live reindeer, pony rides, live ice-carving demonstrations, a Ferris wheel and a hayride.

Holiday entertainment and a greens and craft market are also part of the celebrations.

The event kicks off at 7 p.m. Friday with the lighting of the Woodward Avenue Tree on the median at Nine Mile Road and Woodward Avenue. Mayor Dave Coulter will lead the tree lighting and will be joined by the Ferndale High School Marching Band and special guest Metalliclaus.

Fifty-eight ice carvings, rendered from as many as 300-pound blocks of ice, will stand outside downtown businesses when activities get under way from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday.

Tajana Raukar, a world champion ice carver, returns to Ferndale again this year. She will create a live ice carving using a chainsaw and other tools at 1 p.m. Saturday on the median at Woodward Avenue and Nine Mile Road.

“Watching Tajana Raukar work is an inspiring experience and very much in the ilk of what happens in downtown Ferndale every day, and especially during the holidays,” said DDA Executive Director Cristina Sheppard-Decius in a statement.

Children can talk with Santa and have free photos taken with him only from 10 a.m. to noon, and 2-4 p.m. Saturday at Schiffer Park at Planavon and West Nine Mile Road. Live reindeer will be at the park and hayrides will be available from there.

The Ferris wheel, holiday stage show and the Winterfest Market, which includes a greens market, will be open Friday through Sunday. Santa is set to make impromptu visits throughout the downtown on Sunday. Events are from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

For more information call 248-546-1632 or visit www.downtownferndale.com.